The Transfer Tavern

The Tottenham fans are feeling nervous in the Transfer Tavern ahead of their side’s trip to face Swansea at the Liberty Stadium this afternoon.

Mauricio Pochettino suffered a fatal setback in his quest for his first Tottenham trophy nearly a fortnight ago as his side crashed out of the Champions League following a 4-3 aggregate defeat against the Italian giants Juventus. The resident Lilywhites propping up our bar were drowning their sorrows in the days which followed, but now they have had time to accept and reflect, they are ready to put the result behind them and focus on the FA Cup.

On paper, winning the FA Cup is a much more realistic ambition than winning the Champions League for Spurs, so their elimination whilst frustrating, was not the end of the world. Pochettino’s side have a fantastic chance of lifting one of the world’s most famous trophies this season now that the likes of Manchester City and Liverpool have been eliminated from the competition, but they might have to do it without their talisman Harry Kane.

Indeed, Kane was injured during Tottenham’s league clash with Bournemouth last weekend, and although the severity of the damage to his ankle is rather unclear at this stage, he certainly won’t be featuring this afternoon. Kane’s absence leaves the club with just one recognised first-team striker to chose from, namely Fernando Llorente, but given his struggle in-front of goal this season, Pochettino would be wise to select Heung-Min Son (valued at £31.5 million by Transfermarkt) at centre-forward.

The vast majority of Son’s appearances for the club have been made from the left side of midfield, but he has occasionally been opted to lead the line for the club whether alongside another striker or on his own. Son has all of the qualities that are needed to strike fear into his opponent’s defence: pace, agility, quick-feet, high work-rate, and of course, a clinical edge in front of goal.

Son is perhaps lacking the poacher’s instinct that Llorente offers as a natural centre-forward, but the South-Korean international is vastly superior to Kane’s deputy in almost every other sense. Pochettino is facing his biggest challenge of the season so far against a resurgent Swansea side today, and in order to overcome that challenge he will need to adopt a cut-throat attitude by opting to start Son instead of Llorente in place of Harry Kane.